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ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

A Discourse delivered on the National Fast Day, June 1, 1865. 
BY THOMAS WORCESTER. 



"Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to Him, and saith of him, 
Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! Nathaniel 
saith unto Him, Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered 
and said unto him, Before that Philip called thee, when thou 
wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and 
saith unto Him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God ; thou art 
the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said unto him, Be- 
cause I said I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? 
thou shalt see greater things than these. And He saith unto 
him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see 
heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending 
upon the Son of man." 

Five years ago, when Abraham Lincoln was chosen President 
of the United States, he might well have shrunk back in aston- 
ishment ; and, from what we have since known of him, we 
may believe that he did shrink back, and say within himself, 
How do they know me? and how can they suppose that I 
have the proper qualifications for that high office ? It is true 
that they did not know him, or know that he had those qualifi- 
cations. Bat there was One among them who did know ; One 
who had been with them from the beginning, and who had led 
and guided them hitherto. This same One had been with him 

1 



from the beginning, and needed not that any should testify 
concerning him, because He knew what was in him. And 
from what we all know now, we feel assured that this One could 
say unto him, Whilst thou wast in obscurity, I knew thee. 
Before others knew thee, I knew thee. It is true that thou 
hast not the qualifications for that office, which are desirable in 
ordinary times. But those qualifications would be impediments 
now, for a new work, is to be done ; a work that no human 
wisdom or power can do. I know thee to be an Israelite 
indeed, in whom is no guile. I know that thou wilt look up 
unto me, and suffer me to lead thee, and that thou wilt be hon- 
est and faithful to thy duty. Thou art the man whom I now 
desira to be in that office ; go forward, enter into it, and I will 
be with thee. Thou canst not see beforehand what thou art to 
do, but information will be given thee when it is needed. 

In these days the Lord does not speak unto men with an 
audible voice, for He has already uttered His Word, and He 
now explains it, fills it with His Spirit, and thus enables those 
who are willing to be led by Him, to understand Him. 

In the history of creation we learn that men were created in 
the image and likeness of God ; and in the explanation of 
Scripture which the Lord now gives, at His second coming, 
we learn that there is an influx of Love and Wisdom from 
Him, as of heat and light from the sun : for in Him is Infinite 
Love; and the nature of this love is such, that He desires to 
give unto others the things which are His own ; to give not 
only the outward worldly things which He has created, and 
which are therefore His, but the internal things, — the Love and 
Wisdom from which He created the outward things. From 
this love of communicating His Love and Wisdom, He pro- 
duces men to receive them. And as men are recipients of the 
things which are in Him, they are in His image and likeness ; 
and they have a desire to communicate unto others the things 
which are in themselves. 

But there are various kinds of good things. There are some 
things which our natural loves regard as good, because they 
are good for the body, and contribute to our worldly happi- 



ness ; and there are other things which spiritual loves regard 
as good, because they are good for the soul, in its relation to 
the Lord and heaven. All kinds are from the Lord, and He 
desires that we should receive them all ; but Pie regards nat- 
ural things as subordinate to spiritual, and He desires us to 
regard them so. But while men are in a natural state of mind, 
they receive and appreciate merely natural things. They desire 
chiefly things which they regard as good for themselves ; but 
they also do good to others, for the sake of themselves. But 
spiritual men regard spiritual things as most important. They 
are disposed to do and to communicate both spiritual and nat- 
ural good to their neighbors ; but as they value the spiritual 
for its own sake, and value the natural for the sake of the 
spiritual, they of course desire their neighbors to do the same. 

But all kinds of good are from the Lord ; and while men 
are doing them, they are acting from the Lord, whether they 
are sensible of it or not, and they may therefore be regarded as 
representatives of Him. It is natural to think of them as act- 
ing of themselves ; but this is a very superficial, sensual, and 
incorrect way of thinking of them ; for they never act of them- 
selves, and it is impossible for them to do so. When they do 
evil, they act under the influence of evil spirits ; but when they 
do good, they are under the influence of good spirits and of 
the Lord. 

When we regard all good men as acting from the Lord, our 
knowledge of Him is continually increasing ; for all the varie- 
ties of goodness that we see in them, are from Him ; and when 
we see their good works, we glorify their Father, who is in 
the heavens ; that is, we love Him more, and believe in Him 
more. 

One of the greatest blessings that a people can enjoy, is 
that of having rulers who are in the image and likeness of the 
Lord : not only because they are for that reason better rulers, 
but because their example and influence have a tendency to 
bring all the people into the same image. This blessing we 
have enjoyed for four years, in our chief magistrate. 

The areat attributes of the Lord are His Love and His Wis- 



dom. His Love is the love of doing good, and communi- 
cating good unto men ; and His Wisdom is the wisdom of 
that Love. It is the Wisdom by which He does and commu- 
nicates good unto men. In our President we saw an image 
of these attributes. It was very manifest that His ruling love 
was love towards others. No one who was acquainted with 
him imagined that he was governed by a love of dominion, a 
love of popularity or fame, or of wealth ; but all could see 
that he appeared to be filled with kindness and love towards 
others. One of the strongest evidences of the purity of any 
one's love is, that he does not love merely those who love him, 
and that he does not hate those who hate, and is not angry and 
revengeful towards those who revile and injure him. These 
are test questions, which are given us by the Lord Himself, 
that we may try our feelings by them, and ascertain whether 
they are from Him, and therefore like His, or from an opposite 
quarter. Will not Mr. Lincoln's feelings bear this examina- 
tion? Did he love merely those who loved him, or did he 
love the whole country, and thus love those who hated him? 
Did he manifest hatred, anger, and revenge toward those 
who manifested those feelings towards him? or was he merciful, 
forgiving, and, in a measure, like unto our heavenly Father, — 
good unto all, even to the unthankful and the evil? What do 
our memories testify ? What has been his conduct for four 
years past? It is all before you. No life was ever more 
public; no character was ever more transparent. Some of 
you have seen him and conversed with him. All of us have 
read his inaugurals, his messages, his speeches, his conversa- 
tions, and his letters. Of all these things we are witnesses ; 
and what do we testify? Has there been any man on this 
earth, who, upon being ill-treated as he has been, has mani- 
fested less anger, hatred, and vindictiveness, or more forgive- 
ness and good-will, than Mr. Lincoln has? Is he not, then, a 
remarkable image of the Lord as to his noblest attribute, His 
Divine Love? 

And then as to wisdom. The Divine Wisdom is that by 
which the Lord does <>-ood unto angels and men. Mr. Lincoln 



had obtained some knowledge of this Wisdom, and lie had 
great respect for it. He was a humble man, and was willing 
to receive assistance from his fellow-men ; but he had a work 
to do, which neither he nor they knew how to do. lie there- 
fore became more sensible of the need of looking to the Lord, 
and of being led by His Providence, than he ever was before. 
He also saw, that if he would be led by the Lord, he must 
conform to the Divine Laws ; and he believed that if he did so, 
the Lord would lead him through the great work which was 
before him. He saw that he must do justly, love mercy, and 
walk humbly with his God. He constantly had it in his mind, 
that the Lord teaches us to love our neighbors as ourselves, 
and to do unto them as we would have them do unto us. 
These precepts he regarded as the- principles of true wisdom ; 
and these principles he was disposed to follow, as far as the 
Constitution and laws of his country would allow. Here he 
met with great difficulty in carrying out the Divine principles 
by which he wished to be guided ; for our Constitution and 
laws wei'e not, in all respects, founded on those principles. 
Slavery was in our country at the time when our Constitution 
was formed ; and in forming it, the Divine principles which 
have been referred to were set aside, so as to allow of the 
existence of that institution. Consequently, the Constitution 
did not allow the government to meddle with slavery in ordi- 
nary times, and when it was used for ordinary purposes. 

But slavery, being in its very essence and nature aggressive,' 
brought on rebellion and war. And during rebellion and war, 
the Constitution gives extraordinary powers to the President. 
It puts all the forces of the country into his hands, and requires 
him to use them. It requires him to carry on the war, and to 
put down the rebellion, by all means that arc lawful and xpe- 
dient ; and one of the proper means of carrying on war is, to 
deprive the enemies of the means by which they carry it on. 
Now it so happened in our case, that our enemies were slave- 
holders, and that their slaves were an important means of 
carrying on the war against us. Consequently, the Consti- 
tution required the President to deprive them of their slaves, if 



6 

he regarded that as the best means of opposing them. He did 
so regard it, and he did act in that manner. 

Now let us look upon the result at which we have arrived. 
The Constitution of the United States, which is by many almost 
worshipped as the perfection of political wisdom, has, in order 
to save its own life, been obliged to bow to the simple princi- 
ples of Divine justice, which are revealed in the Word of God ; 
and has been obliged to cast out of itself the base, incongruous, 
and unjust elements that entered into it from beneath. There 
was a conflict between our Constitution and Divine justice. 
This conflict was carried on over the whole country, but espe- 
cially in the mind of the President ; because in him the two 
things met ; because he felt bound to conform to them both ; 
and because he was, therefore, bound to reconcile them, if he 
possibly could. And we have been allowed to see the process by 
which the work was done ; for he was so honest, so ingenuous, 
so transparent, he was as if his whole outer man were made of 
o-lass ; we could plainly see the operations of his inner man. 
How often have we heard him say, " I am as much opposed to 
slavery as any of you; and if it depended upon me as a man, 
it would soon come to an end : but I am the President of the 
United States; I have taken an oath to support the Constitu- 
tion ; I could not have entered on that office without taking that 
oath ; I must not, therefore, use the powers of that office as a 
means of carrying out my private sentiments, let those senti- 
ments be ever so good, if they are not in accordance with the 
Constitution." Thus for a long while did Mr. Lincoln labor, 
internally and externally, to overcome the rebellion, and at t he 
same time to preserve the Constitution, with all its imperfec- 
tions. But at length the Constitution itself told him that it 
was his duty to emancipate the slaves, as a means of putting 
down the rebellion, and defending the country. Then he felt 
at liberty to act from the good things which were treasured up 
in his own heart : and he did aet from them. 

This conflict between the Constitution and justice was at the 
same time going on in the minds of many others. But there 
were very many who could not hold their minds in suspense, 



but immediately took one side or the other. They had no con- 
flict in their own minds, but they had it between one another. 
It belonged to Mr. Lincoln, on account of his high position, to 
see when the Constitution surrendered, and to determine when 
the conflict should cease. It Avas then his duty to bring forth 
the dictates of wisdom which had been suppressed, and to 
establish the ordinances of justice as the law of the land. 

He was honest ; he was faithful ; he desired to be led ; and 
while he was carefully feeling his way, we believe that the 
Lord did lead him. He had received from the Divine Love 
the love of doing good ; and then from the Divine AVisdom, 
he received the wisdom for doing it ; so that we see in him an 
image of both those Divine attributes. And a very great 
blessing it is to any people, to be able to see this in their ruler, 
for it has a powerful tendency to bring them into such a state 
as he is in. 

As all good feelings and true thoughts are from Divine Love 
and Wisdom, and are images of them, so all good works are 
from Divine works, and are images of them. And as some 
Divine works are apparently greater and more conspicuous 
than others, so it is with human works. In ordinary times, 
when Divine works consist in creating men and preparing 
them for heaven, they are so much embodied in human works, 
that they are scarcely visible. Men may then be sensible 
of the internal presence and influence of the Lord, and their 
affairs may go on smoothly and happily. But men decline. 
Imperfections, shortcomings, and faults are permitted, and 
become common ; then positive evils and falsities creep in, 
and all these things increase and accumulate from generation 
to generation ; until the heavens are darkened ; until the inter- 
nal presence and influence of the Lord cease to be manifest ; 
and all correct ideas of Him, and of the way to Him, are lost; 
then it becomes necessarv that He should come down to re- 
move these obstructions, and open the way of salvation. And 
with the obstructions, it is necessary that He should remove all 
those who obstinately adhere to them, and will not be sepa- 
rated from them. This is what is meant by a coming of the 



8 

Lord, and" by a judgment. These works are, of course, more 
conspicuous, and seem to be greater than His ordinary work-. 

Such a work the Lord did in the spiritual world at His first 
coming, and the effects of it gradually came down into this 
world, and were manifested in the form and operations of the 
first Christian church. And when that church came to an end, 
He came again, and performed another similar work in the 
spiritual world ; and the effects of it are coming down into the 
natural world, and are to appear in the form of a New Church 
and its operations. 

When a church is declining, and coming to an end, the evil 
influences from hell in their operation upon men overpower the 
good influences from heaven, and thus deprive them of spirit- 
ual freedom. The primary effort of Divine and heavenly influ- 
ences is to make men free ; for the Lord and His angels love 
them, and desire to bestow upon them all good things what- 
ever, both spiritual and natural. 

But they know that men cannot properly receive and use 
any good thing whatever, unless they are free. Hence it is, 
that in all they do for men they have a primary regard for their 
freedom. On the other hand, evil spirits do not love men, do 
not desire to communicate any good things to them, and there- 
fore do not desire that they should be free ; but they love them- 
selves i mly ; they desire that men should serve them, that they 
should have no freedom but the freedom of serving them, and 
no pleasure but that of serving them. 

This is the influence that men come under at the end of a 
church; and it is to deliver them from this bondage, and bring 
them into spiritual freedom, that the Lord comes down, reveals 
Himself and the principles of His government, execute- a 
judgment, performs the work of redemption, and establishes a 
New Church. 

The principal part of the work that He does al such times is 
in the spiritual world; for there do the sources of evil influ- 
ences exisl in the greatesi abundance. There, too, the work is 
done in i'i>' shortest time ; for those upon whom a judgment is 
to be executed are ripe, their characters are already formed ; 



9 

but they are living in fantasies, deceiving themselves and one 
another. 

When, therefore, the Lord manifests Himself to them, He 
manifests them to themselves, and to one another; for when 
goodness and truth are plainly revealed, the evil and the false 
can no longer be mistaken for them, but are plainly seen to be 
opposite to them. So, when the Lord reveals Himself, good 
spirits, who have been in obscurity on account of the influence 
of evil spirits upon them, then come forth, draw near unto 
Him, and are raised up into heaven ; but evil spirits flee away 
to their own abodes in outer darkness. 

In this world the effects of the Lord's coming are in some 
respects similar, but in others different. A sudden manifesta- 
tion of the Lord causes a judgment, in which the righteous are 
raised up into heaven, and the wicked sink down into hell. To 
those who are in the spiritual world, and whose characters are 
already formed, this is not injurious. To the righteous it is a 
great blessing, and to the wicked it is as great a blessing as 
they are prepared to receive. 

But to people in this world, whose characters are not formed, 
the effect of a sudden manifestation would be injurious ; for 
under so great a light they could not be reformed and regene- 
rated in freedom, and therefore not at all. Therefore in this 
world the Lord reveals Himself slowly and gradually. To 
those who are opposed to Him He decs not make His presence, 
or even Eis existence manifest. But to those who are willing 
to receive Him, He reveals Himself obscurely at first, and after- 
wards more clearly, as they become able to receive and rejoice 
in His light. 

In the literal sense of the Scriptures there is but little re- 
vealed concerning these general judgments, but in the spiritual 
sense there is much. In the spiritual sense of the deliverance 
of the Israelites from bondage and servitude in Egypt, of their 
travels in the wilderness, and of their introduction into the 
Promised Land, we have a description of the judgment which 
the Lord performed when He came the first time; and in the 
spiritual sense of the Apocalypse we have a description ot the 



10 

work which He performed at His second coming. The effects 
of that work may be seen in the great changes in all forms of 
religion, and in the great improvements which have been made 
during the last hundred years ; and particularly what has been 
done towards the abolition of slavery, and the increase of free- 
dom among men. 

In this work Mr. Lincoln has been very conspicuous. As 
the Lord has been delivering men from spiritual slavery, so 
Mr. Lincoln, acting from Him, and from and according to His 
principles, has been delivering men from natural slavery, and 
at the same time overcoming the slaveholders. Neither of 
these works had he any thought of doing when he entered upon 
his office. As to liberating the slaves, he did not imagine that 
he had any right to do it ; and as to attacking their masters, 
he had no disposition to do it. He merely intended to perform 
. the duties of his office, and to have nothing to do with slavery, 
except to prevent its extension. But the slaveholders attacked 
him, and endeavored to destroy his government. This made 
it necessary for him to defend himself; and for this purpose he 
regarded it as right and expedient to liberate the slaves, for 
without their services at home their masters Avould not be able 
to make war. So here, as in all conflicts between good and 
evil, evil made the attack, and good only defended itself, and 
thus evil brought on its own destruction. 

But Mr. Lincoln's course was suddenly brought to an end in 
a most unexpected manner. It was unexpected to us who 
knew him, for how should we be led to think that any one 
would desire to kill him who loved every body, and hated no- 
body. 

In the war which had been going on, every one knew, or 
might have known, that he acted from ill-will to no one, and 
that he was only performing the duties of his office in defend- 
ing his country. And, besides, the war was virtually at an end, 
and nothing more was to be expected from him that even the 
rebels would regard as evil. 

As soon as the murder was committed, it was seen that the 
agent was a person who was wholly insignificant in himself, 



11 

and who had previously attracted notice only by assuming the 
character of others, and bringing- forth their feelings and 
thoughts as if they were his own. And it has .since been dis- 
covered that in performing this deed he was acting a part that 
had been assigned to him by others. How many of them there 
may have been, and what may have been the degrees of their 
guilt, as manifested by visible, signs and acts, it is not for us, 
but for others, to ascertain. 

As spiritual men, however, it is our duty to look into the 
spirit of the whole affair. In the New Church we know that 
there is a spiritual influence flowing from one to another, which 
sometimes makes a whole community feel, think, *and act as 
one man. This has been so to a remarkable degree in the 
Southern States. The cause is manifest : they have all been 
interested in the support of one institution ; and unfortunately 
it happens that that institution is an evil one ; that it is an insti- 
tution that originates in the love of dominion urounded in 
selfishness, and that in all its operations cherishes that love. 
They of course hated their free neighbors ; for their very exist- 
ence — even if they said nothing — would have been to them a 
perpetual reproach and condemnation. And while they de- 
pended for subsistence upon the labors of those whom they 
despised, they of course held in utter contempt those who de- 
pended upon their own labors. But as their feelings had such 
an evil origin, and were so evil in themselves, they were con- 
stantly under a kind of necessity to cover them up with - falsities ; 
for it would not do for them to say that they hated and de- 
spised their neighbors, because they were honest people, who 
did not compel others to work for them, but worked for them- 
selves and one another. This was exactly what they did not 
wish to have thought and said ; therefore they felt obliged to 
say other things, which were not true. And when their long- 
continued hatred finally brought on war, they gave false rea- 
sons for it, and pretended that their neighbors made war upon 
them, and filled the whole atmosphere with lies. This was 
not done by the common people of the South, but by the lead- 



12 

ers of the rebellion. The common people only believed the 
lies. 

When, by General Sherman's march through South Caro- 
lina, Lx-Governor Aikin was brought out of the darkness or 
the rebellion into the light of the Union, he said that he then 
for the first time had an opportunity to see President Lincoln's 
first Inaugural Address, which was delivered four years be- 
fore — thus before the war began ; and he said, that if the 
people of the Southern States had seen that Address, they 
would not have consented to the war, and the rebellion would 
have come to an end. But it did not suit the purposes of the 
leaders tin* the people hould see that Address. This is only 
one example out of thousands ; for it was a constant and 
universal effort of the leaders of the rebellion, to withhold the 
truth from the people, and to make them believe what was 
false. 

When, therefore, we look at this murder in spiritual light, 
we see that the guilt of it is not confined to those who took an 
active part in it, but that it extends to all who hated Mr. Lin- 
coln, and hated the people of the free States, who put him 
into office; — to all who from that hatred rejected the truth 
concerning him aid them : and to all who from hatred were 
led to love, to believe, and to propagate lies concerning him 
and them. This mass of hatred and lies was the cause of that 
murder ; and all who participated in the hatred and lies, par- 
ticipated in the murder. 

The extreme abhorrence and detestation which have, been 
manifested for this crime throughout the world is very remark- 
able, and must be owing in a great degree to the high estima- 
tion in which Mi - . Lincoln's character is held, and the strong 
approbation which lias been felt for his conducl during the war. 
1\' he had been a tyrant, as the rebels have represented him, 
and if he had been manifesting a revengeful and cruel spirit, 
the effect of his removal would be very different. Bui it is 
well known that he was a very merciful, kind and conscientious 
man, and that he used tin 1 powers of his office in doing good to 
his country, without any partiality to the district to which he 



13 

belonged, and without any feelings of hatred or revenge to- 
wards any one. And it will in the end be found, that he 
really was doing the most good to that part of the country 
that rebelled against him ; and that while he was acting from 
love towards them, they were acting from hatred towards him. 
And it was permitted by the Divine Providence that they 
should be successful ; it was permitted that they should do to 
him what seemed to them to be the greatest possible injury ; 
that is, to kill him, and put an end to all his operations among 
men. 

The ways of Providence, in permitting such events, are 
usually called mysterious and inscrutable. Such has been the 
case in times past ; but during the slaveholders' war, the Divine 
purposes have either been made remarkably manifest, or the 
minds of men have been opened in a remarkable manner to see 
them. And in no event has the Divine purpose been more 
manifest, than in the one which we are now considering ; for 
we know that the general purpose which the Lord has in view, 
is to withdraw men from evil and lead them to good ; to with- 
draw their minds especially, so that they may hate what is evil, 
and love what is good. Now by what means could this work 
be done most effectually? Is there any other way in which 
so much aversion could be produced among men, all over the 
world, for the evils which are manifested in slaveholders? And 
is there any other way in which so much atfection could be 
produced among men, for the opposite good qualities which 
were manifested in Mr. Lincoln? Is there any other way that 
would be so effectual as that of allowing the rebels to kill him? 
The permission was given. The deed has been done, and the 
effects of it are manifest all over the world, and will be mani- 
fest forever. Now, considering the state of men, is there any 
other way in which so much could be done for their welfare? 
Are there any whose natural feelings linger in pity over the 
victim? Let them know that their pity is misplaced. In his 
own view, he is not a victim : in the view of those around him, 
he is not a victim ; nor has he been for a moment. He is by 
no means a proper object of pity ; but they who are more or 



14 

less guilty of the crime, are the ones to he pitied. He suffered 
nothing. On the contrary, what was meant for evil to him, 
was turned into good. He suddenly fell asleep ; and when he 
awoke, he found himself in an exceedingly pleasant state of 
mind, and surrounded by delightful friends, who informed him 
of the happy change that had taken place in him. After hav- 
ing, under their guidance and instruction, become acquainted 
with his new situation, his ruling loves revived in him; and 
this brought him into open communion with those of similar 
loves, with whom he had been in internal and invisible com- 
munion, and with whom lie had been insensibly and uncon- 
sciously sympathizing and co-operating, while in this world. 
From them he learns to understand many things, which were 
before unintelligible. He learns to understand the purposes 
and laws of the Divine Providence better than before. He 
learns that the spiritual world and the natural are close to- 
gether, and that spirits and men are in internal communion, so 
as to influence one another, and so as to feel, think, and act 
too-ether. He learns that there has for a long time been a 
spiritual conflict, in which evil spirits and evil men have been 
striving against good spirits and good men. He learns that the 
spiritual conflict gradually came down, and came out into a 
natural conflict,— into a rebellion and open war. He learns 
that good spirits are in favor of justice and freedom, and that 
they are united and co-operate with men of similar principles : 
also that evil spirits are in favor of injustice and slavery, and 
that they unite and co-operate with the men of those principles. 
He finds, too, that although lie has cast off the material 
body, and so passed from the material world into the spiritual, 
his principles and purposes remain the same. He is more 
enlightened, and his feelings are wanner, than when he was 
here; hut this only causes him to understand and love the 
principles of justice and freedom belter than while here, and 
makes him eo-operatc more zealously with his new companions, 
in bringing the kingdom of the Lord down upon earth, and 
causing His will to he done here, as it is in heaven. 






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